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Firebase vs PubNub: What are the differences?
Firebase: The Realtime App Platform. Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications. Simply add the Firebase library to your application to gain access to a shared data structure; any changes you make to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds; PubNub: Build real-time apps quickly and scale them globally. PubNub makes it easy for you to add real-time capabilities to your apps, without worrying about the infrastructure. Build apps that allow your users to engage in real-time across mobile, browser, desktop and server.
Firebase and PubNub can be categorized as "Realtime Backend / API" tools.
Some of the features offered by Firebase are:
- Add the Firebase library to your app and get access to a shared data structure. Any changes made to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.
- Firebase apps can be written entirely with client-side code, update in real-time out-of-the-box, interoperate well with existing services, scale automatically, and provide strong data security.
- Data Accessibility- Data is stored as JSON in Firebase. Every piece of data has its own URL which can be used in Firebase's client libraries and as a REST endpoint. These URLs can also be entered into a browser to view the data and watch it update in real-time.
On the other hand, PubNub provides the following key features:
- PubNub SDKs support over 50 of the most popular environments, including: iOS, Android, JavaScript, .NET, Java, Ruby, Python, PHP and many more.
- Data Push - Establish and maintain persistent socket connections to any device (mobile, browser, desktop and server) and push data to global audiences in less than ¼ of a second
- Presence - Automatically detect when users enter or leave your app and whether machines are online
"Realtime backend made easy" is the top reason why over 318 developers like Firebase, while over 31 developers mention "Massively scalable & easy to use" as the leading cause for choosing PubNub.
Instacart, 9GAG, and Twitch are some of the popular companies that use Firebase, whereas PubNub is used by OpenGov, Hinge, and Blossom. Firebase has a broader approval, being mentioned in 859 company stacks & 992 developers stacks; compared to PubNub, which is listed in 43 company stacks and 12 developer stacks.
I am building an IoT application that will utilize connected air quality sensors to provide real-time indoor air quality in offices. I want to be able to share this data with a few different databases, etc.
Wondering if anyone has any advice on which real-time streaming API would be best for this sort of application, or even how I should think about it?
AblyFor IoT, we support MQTT along with websockets and SSE. The pattern you're suggesting that involves harvesting data from devices and soaking into a database is easy to achieve with one of the Ably integrations (Serverless functions/webhook) . Here are some tutorials to do things like this: https://ably.com/tutorials/reactor-event-zapier#step2-mqtt-ably
We use Pusher at www.justlearn.com. It works fine. When you reach more users, Pusher gets expensive. We use Pusher for live chat between users. Their software is easy to use. We have had issues with auth on Pusher.
We are starting to work on a web-based platform aiming to connect artists (clients) and professional freelancers (service providers). In-app, timeline-based, real-time communication between users (& storing it), file transfers, and push notifications are essential core features. We are considering using Node.js, ExpressJS, React, MongoDB stack with Socket.IO & Apollo, or maybe using Real-Time Database and functionalities of Firebase.
FirebaseI would recommend looking hard into Firebase for this project, especially if you do not have dedicated full-stack or backend members on your team.
The real time database, as you mentioned, is a great option, but I would also look into Firestore. Similar to RTDB, it adds more functions and some cool methods as well. Also, another great thing about Firebase is you have easy access to storage and dead simple auth as well.
Node.js Express MongoDB Socket.IO and Apollo are great technologies as well, and may be the better option if you do not wish to cede as much control to third parties in your application.
Overall, I say if you wish to focus more time developing your React application instead of other parts of your stack, Firebase is a great way to do that.
AblyHello Noam 👋,
I suggest taking a look at Ably, it has all the realtime features you need and the platform is designed to guarantee critical functionality at scale.
Here is an in depth comparison between Ably and Firebase
The start-up guides, tutorials and documentation in general for Firebase are pretty outstanding.
There is 1GB database storage for the free tier as compared to Supabase's 500MB. Not that I think there is anything wrong with Supabase, I intend to try it out someday.
Also if you are doing any sort of personal front-end project, even using a free cluster from MongoDB can be a lot of work and setup, with Firebase (specifically Fire store and Google Authenticator) the implementation of BaaS is quite easy to get up and running.
It's pretty easy to understand the Fires store security rules as well, and if you ever have a hard time trying to figure something out, there is good community support and YouTube tutorials for most topics.
Pros of Firebase
- Realtime backend made easy367
- Fast and responsive268
- Easy setup239
- Real-time212
- JSON188
- Free132
- Backed by google126
- Angular adaptor82
- Reliable67
- Great customer support35
- Great documentation30
- Real-time synchronization25
- Mobile friendly21
- Rapid prototyping18
- Great security14
- Automatic scaling12
- Freakingly awesome11
- Super fast development8
- Angularfire is an amazing addition!8
- Chat8
- Built in user auth/oauth6
- Firebase hosting6
- Ios adaptor6
- Awesome next-gen backend6
- Speed of light4
- Very easy to use4
- It's made development super fast3
- Great3
- Brilliant for startups3
- The concurrent updates create a great experience2
- Cloud functions2
- Free hosting2
- Push notification2
- Free authentication solution2
- JS Offline and Sync suport2
- Low battery consumption2
- I can quickly create static web apps with no backend2
- Great all-round functionality2
- Large1
- Easy to use1
- Free SSL1
- CDN & cache out of the box1
- Faster workflow1
- .net1
- Easy Reactjs integration1
- Google's support1
- Good Free Limits1
- Serverless1
Pros of PubNub
- Massively scalable & easy to use36
- Easy setup25
- Reliable20
- Great support19
- Flexible to integrate to custom applications14
- High-Performance13
- Sockets at Scale13
- 99.999% availability guarantees13
- High-Reliability12
- Multiplexing12
- Scalability7
- 70+ SDKs5
- High-Availability5
- Security4
- Azure Add-on4
- Heroku Add-on3
- Easy to setup3
- Flexible3
- Presence3
- Analytics2
- Free Plan2
- Server-Side Cache2
- PhoneGap Plugin2
- AngularJS Adapter2
- Data Sync2
- Data Streams2
- Support2
- Easy setup and very reliable1
- High cost, going up more in Summer '151
- Cool1
- Angular 2+ integration1
- Documentation, easy to use, great people/service1
- CTO stephen also is A++++++1
- Real time and easy to use.1
- Easy integration with iOS apps1
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Cons of Firebase
- Can become expensive31
- Scalability is not infinite15
- No open source, you depend on external company15
- Not Flexible Enough9
- Cant filter queries6
- Very unstable server3
- No Relational Data3
- Too many errors2
- No offline sync2
Cons of PubNub
- Costly1
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